In November 2005, Klare alleged that a major factor motivating the George W. Bush administration to attack Iraq was its desire to distract attention from domestic political difficulties and to increase popularity for the President. US popular support for Bush increased by about 10% during the 2003 invasion of Iraq and only dropped back to its previous level several months later.
The movie Blood and Oil, which came out before the end of the Bush Administration, explains Klare's view on oil as an instrument of national policy. Using sources including statements from official government sources and statements by media commentators, Klare pushes for alternative energy and warns that energy will be hard to get in the next century. The website for the movie describes the movie as follows:
The notion that oil motivates America's military engagements in the Middle East has long been dismissed as nonsense or mere conspiracy theory. Blood and Oil, a new documentary based on the acclaimed work of Nation magazine defense correspondent Michael T. Klare, challenges this conventional wisdom to correct the historical record. The film unearths declassified documents and highlights forgotten passages in prominent presidential doctrines to show how concerns about oil have been at the core of American foreign policy for more than 60 years – rendering our contemporary energy and military policies virtually indistinguishable. In the end, Blood and Oil calls for a radical re-thinking of US energy policy, warning that unless we change direction, we stand to be drawn into one oil war after another as the global hunt for diminishing world petroleum supplies accelerates.
In a number of articles, Klare has commented on the future of oil. In an article published on March 13, 2012, he discussed "the principal cause of higher oil prices", concluding that "a fundamental shift in the structure of the oil industry" has occurred because of "the disappearance of relatively accessible and inexpensive petroleum", and that countries will have to grasp for the harder oil in the future. In another article, he continues this thesis and suggests that sanctions on Iran make not only Iranians suffer, but also those that buy oil from Iran. That same month, Klare noted the sensitive spots of conflict in the "Geo-energy era". They include the Strait of Hormuz, the East and South China Seas, the Caspian Sea basin, and the Arcticpolar region. In another article in 2011, Klare expanded his thesis to something more radical. He noted that America and oil were falling together.
